Cords which interconnect portions of telephone station apparatus are generally retractile in form. These are well known in the art and are described, for example, in U.S. Pat. No. 4,090,763 which issued on May 23, 1978 in the names of W. T. Congdon et al. These cords are made available in several lengths and in a variety of colors. They are marketed through local outlets where they are purchased by customers who install them. Installation is facilitated by terminating the cords with modular plugs which are easily inserted into jacks in the station apparatus. Such plugs are shown, for example, in U.S. Pat. No. 4,148,539, which issued on Apr. 10, 1979 in the name of E. C. Hardesty.
The cords have been provided to customers in individual plastic bags. Each bag comprises two plies which are sealed along overlapping longitudinal and transverse edges. The packaging plastic is printed with instructions to the customer regarding the installation of the cord.
Manufacture of a cord includes the manufacture of individually insulated conductors as disclosed in above-identified U.S. Pat. No. 4,090,763 and the jacketing of a plurality of the conductors to form cordage. A length of cordage is wound in a plurality of convolutions on a mandrel, heat-set and removed from the mandrel while the direction of the helices is reversed.
Retractile cords so produced are loaded seriatim on a conveyor, such as a turntable, for example, with ends of each cord adjacent to the periphery of the turntable. As the turntable is indexed through a plurality of work stations, a modular plug is attached to each end of each cord which is disposed in a U-shape on the turntable. Then, a plurality of terminals in the form of blades are inserted into each plug and seated therein to cause tangs of the terminals to engage electrically conductors of the cord end that is terminated with the plug. Following their termination, the cords are removed from the turntable by a pickup device and loaded into receptacles.
The receptacles are moved to a work station where each is packaged by commercially available apparatus. One such apparatus for packaging cords includes means for supporting a roll of a strip of plastic material which includes two longitudinally extending plies that are sealed together along their longitudinal edges. The plies are sealed together transversely at spaced intervals and transverse openings are formed in one of the plies adjacent to each transverse end. Successive sections of the strip are advanced to a loading station. A jet of air directed toward each opening as it is presented to a loading position causes the separation of the plies to permit an operator to insert a cord. Then the plies adjacent to the opening are sealed together. The sealed package which has been loaded with a cord is separated from the strip along a line of perforations adjacent to the opening.
As should be apparent, the use of packaging facilities separate from the terminating apparatus requires additional handling which results in increased costs. It would be most desirable to be able to integrate the packaging as the last in the sequence of steps of manufacture associated with the turntable. This need has not been met by the prior art. To meet this need in its entirety requires the capability of packaging different lengths of retractile cords. Moreover, apparatus for meeting this need should be such that it is easily integrated with the apparatus for terminating the cords with modular plugs.